Returned
by winchestersangels
Summary: Instead of Amara bringing Mary Winchester back, she brings back Sam's twin, Alison. Alison died in a car accident on July 4th, 2008, at age 23. At the time, Dean was in Hell and Sam was unreachable. For weeks, nobody knew she'd died. Eight years later, she's back.


**A/N: **This has been sitting in my google docs for quite some time. I pretty much wrote this in one sitting and never came back to it, except to occasionally read through it. Never could figure out how to continue it. But, I still like it. I think it's a pretty good one shot. I'm not the best writer, but I figured I'd publish this anyway. I always enjoyed sisfics for Supernatural, especially ones that involved Sam having a twin sister. So I took that and ran with it.

**Concept:** Instead of Amara bringing Mary Winchester back, she brings back Sam's twin, Alison. Alison died in a car accident on July 4th, 2008, at age 23. At the time, Dean was in Hell and Sam was unreachable. For weeks, nobody knew she'd died. Eight years later, she's back.

* * *

**Returned**

_What I need most? I don't need anything, _Dean Winchester thinks to himself. Life had been rather unbelievable lately. Hell, he'd just left God and his sister, Amara. Anything was possible. Amara had thanked him for giving her what she needed most and said she wanted to do the same for him. _What the hell does she mean?_

En route to his car, he comes across a person, a woman. He couldn't make out a face from the distance, so he steps closer. Who he sees stops him dead in his tracks. _No way. No fucking way. _It looked like his sister. His sister who died eight years ago. "Ali?" he questions, not believing his own eyes.

"Dean?" Alison questions. She hadn't the slightest clue as to what happened. One minute she was in Heaven, at least she was pretty sure it was Heaven, and the next, she's standing in a field, somewhere on Earth. She knew it was Earth, it felt different. It smelled different.

"Y-you're dead," Dean responds, shell-shocked.

"So are you," she replies.

Dean steps closer, "No, I uh, I was, when you died I was. It's a long story."

"You came back to life?" Alison asks, her head spinning, "And now I did too?"

"It uh, it looks that way," Dean answers. He could not believe his eyes. His sister was standing in front of him, no different than the last time he'd seen her eight years ago. Same long brown hair, same big hazel eyes, same everything. She hadn't aged at all.

"What year is it?" she questions. Dean looked older than the last time she'd seen him, clearly, a lot of time had passed. She'd been dead at least a few years.

"It's 2016. You… You've been gone eight years, Al."

"Oh God," Alison whispers, "Eight- eight years."

Dean steps closer, hoping she'd let him comfort her. When she doesn't step back, he continues, until he was standing right in front of her. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay," he says, pulling her into a hug.

Alison leans into her older brother, the only thing familiar about the entire situation. She wraps her arms around him, holding on for dear life.

"Everything's going to be okay," Dean whispers, rubbing small circles on her back. She was practically shaking. He couldn't even imagine what was going through her head at the moment.

After a few minutes, Alison pulls back, looking Dean in the eyes for the first time. "I- I don't even know what to say, where to start. I… I've missed eight entire years, Dean."

"I know, I know. But we'll catch you up, okay? Anything you could want to know, we'll fill you in. I promise."

"We?" she questions.

"Sammy and I," Dean responds.

"Sam…" Alison whispers, having briefly forgotten about her own twin, "Where is he?"

"He should be back at the bunker. It's this place that we've found, it's pretty much home now. You'll love it, especially the library."

"You have a home now?" she asks, quite surprised to hear it. Home was never something they had, not really. Not unless the Impala counted.

"We do. And so do you. What'd you say?"

"Well, if there's a place good enough for Dean Winchester to call home, I want to see it," Alison responds, cracking a small smile.

Dean smiles in return and says, "Well let's go then."

In the hours it took to reach the bunker, Dean had filled Alison in on the last few years in terms of the supernatural world. He told her about being pulled out of Hell by an angel, about the angels in general, about the apocalypse, about their half brother Adam, and most importantly, about Castiel, the angel who'd damn near become family to them. Figuring Castiel would be at the bunker when they arrived, it was best Alison hear about him first.

"Damn. Damn. I cannot believe I missed all of that." Alison responds. She was in utter disbelief. She missed the actual apocalypse. The real, end is neigh, apocalypse. "So the world didn't end, obviously. What's happened since?"

"That is an entirely different story. Things have just gotten weirder and crazier as time has gone by. I mean, we met God. Like, the actual God. And he has a sister. Who is actually the reason you're here," Dean explains, half expecting her head to explode. Alison had always been like him in terms of faith, she didn't believe in God.

"Wait, what?" Alison responds, positive she heard him wrong. _Did he just say God? How is that even possible?_

"Yeah, long story. Really, _really_, long story. In short, God's sister, Amara, was pissed at him for locking her away for so long, and she threw a catastrophic temper tantrum, threatening to bring down everything he'd created. But uh, Sam, Cas, and I helped stop that. Amara told me that since I gave her the thing she wanted most, her brother, she wanted to do the same. And then you showed up."

"Damn."

"Yeah. We can talk more about that later. Right now, it's time to go see Sam," Dean states, nodding towards the bunker's entrance.

"Sam is exactly who I want to see right now."

Alison lets Dean lead the way, figuring if Sam saw a ghost walking down the stairs he might be tempted to shoot first and ask questions later. Just as Dean pulls open the door, she stops him and says, "I'm uh, I'm going to stay at the top of the stairs, let you explain first."

Dean nods and heads down the stairs, calling out for his brother, "Sammy!"

She could hear them both from the top of the stairs, but she couldn't see them, she was standing with her back against the door, somewhat tempted to turn around and split. She was extremely overwhelmed at the moment.

"Dean! You're alive," Sam responds, sounding astonished and relieved.

_Why would Sam have thought Dean was dead?_ Alison thinks to herself. The sound of her twin's voice, however, makes her pull away from the door. She couldn't leave. She had to see Sam.

"Yeah, and uh, I'm not the only one," Dean says.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam asks, confusion evident in his voice.

"Amara and Chuck are good, one big happy family and all that. But um, Amara told me that I gave her what she needed most and she wanted to do the same for me."

"And what is that?" her twin asks, clearly not following.

She couldn't blame him. The whole thing sounded absolutely insane. She was still processing the fact that she actually died, eight years ago, and was now alive again.

"Well, um, when I was walking back to the car, I came across a person. Not- not just a person. It was…. It was Alison," Dean explains.

There was no response for a moment. Alison could only imagine the look on Sam's face, trying to process what he'd just been told.

"A- Ali is dead," Sam responds, pain in his voice.

"Not anymore. She- she's just upstairs. She didn't want to come down until I explained," Dean says.

Figuring that was her cue, Alison musters up the strength to walk down the stairs. As soon as she sees her twin, tears begin to form in her eyes.

"A- Ali," Sam breathes, feeling like he'd just seen a ghost. His sister, his twin sister, was standing a few feet away from him.

"Hi," she responds, giving him a small smile.

"Hi," Sam repeats, walking over and pulling her into a hug.

Alison wraps her arms around him, squeezing tightly, while she tries to keep her tears at bay.

"I'm going to go take a shower, let you two talk for a bit," Dean states before walking away, off towards the bathroom.

After a few moments, Sam pulls back, his hands now on her shoulders. "I- I can't believe you're here."

"Tell me about it. I mean, I've missed eight whole years, Sam. Eight years," Alison says.

"I know, God, I know," Sam begins, not sure where exactly to start. The way things were between them the last time he saw her… they weren't good. "Look, Al, the things I said back then… I'm sorry. I am so, so sorry. I never, _never_, should have left you."

Alison steps back a bit, remembering everything like it was yesterday. For her, it practically was. "It's… it's fine, Sam," she responds, hoping to sound convincing.

"No, it's not. I left you, Al. I left you alone. And- and you died. You… you died alone. Because I wasn't around. And nobody knew. Nobody knew for weeks that you were gone. It- it was Bobby who finally figured out something was wrong. And we looked and looked until finally, we found articles about the accident… When we saw pictures of the car… we knew it was you. We knew you were gone," Sam explains, holding back tears, "And it was my fault. You died because I left. That will never, ever, be fine."

"Sam, you are not responsible for me. You weren't then and you aren't now. I went off that bridge, okay? I was driving, I lost control. It was an accident," Alison insists, taking one of his hands in hers.

"An accident I could've prevented," Sam states.

"It doesn't matter. It happened. And now I'm here."

"It does matter," Sam persists.

The sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted their conversation. Alison glances over her twin's shoulder to see a man in a trenchcoat. His hair was dark and his eyes were as blue as the ocean. He had to be Castiel, the angel Dean had told her about.

"Cas," Sam says, turning to face him.

"Sam," Castiel responds, walking over towards them. "You're Alison. You're supposed to be dead."

"You know who I am?" Alison asks, taken aback.

"Yes. Why are you here now? How?" Castiel inquires.

"Apparently some chick named Amara brought me back. Bam. Suddenly, after eight years, I'm back among the living," she answers. It wasn't getting any less weird the more she said it.

"Oh," the angel responds.

"Anyway, I'm uh, I'm pretty exhausted. Is there a spare bed somewhere that I can use?" Alison asks, attempting to end the current conversation.

"Yeah, this way," Sam responds, guiding her towards a hallway.

He leads her to an empty bedroom, one they hadn't touched since moving into the bunker. "This should do for now. You can take your pick of rooms later if you want. I'm uh, I'm going to go get you some clean sheets and a towel in case you want to shower," he says before ducking out of the room.

Alison looks around. The room was pretty bare. Nothing on the walls, a bed, a desk, a dresser, and a small bedside table with a lamp and alarm clock on it. She catches her reflection, for the first time, in the mirror on the dresser. She was wearing the outfit she died in. In fact, she looked exactly as she did when she walked out of her motel room the morning of the day she died. Same hair, same clothes, even the same nail polish. It was like the accident had never happened. She'd just been transported eight years into the future.

Thinking of all that, she realized she didn't have anything. Nothing at all. She needed to shop. She also had eight years of catching up to do. Not just in hunting, but in life. Technology advanced so quickly, she had no idea what she could've missed. What the newest phone was like, if the iPhone really caught on, how small the newest laptops were, the pictures TVs could provide, etc. Even social media had to have evolved. All she'd really known was Myspace. Who knew what there was now. What music was popular, what kind of tv shows were on air, what the fashion was.

_I wonder if Grey's Anatomy is still around_, she thinks to herself. She remembered how Sam hated the show, but she and Dean got some kind of weird enjoyment from it. Finding that her head was starting to spin, she shifts her attention to her hair and attempts to run her fingers through it. It was knotty, and she had some serious split ends, so she resorts to pulling it back. She always had a black hair tie around her wrist. Even on the day she died.

Sam walks back in, sheets, two pillows, a towel, and a t-shirt in hand. "I uh, I remembered you always used two pillows, these were the best I could find. And since you don't have any other clothes, I grabbed one of my shirts if you wanted it to sleep in."

She could tell he was sort of tip-toeing around her. He didn't quite know what to say. Honestly, neither did she. "Thanks. I'll have to go shopping or something since I have well… nothing."

Sam nods and says, "Well, I'll let you get some sleep. There's a bathroom down the hall to your left if you need it. Just shout if you need anything."

"Will do," Alison responds as she watches her twin walk back out of the room. Once she was sure he was out of earshot, she shuts the door and prays, or at least attempts to pray, to Gabriel. The only angel she knew. The one person she thought may be able to help her right now.

Gabriel had visited her in Heaven quite a bit. She figured that must be what all heavens were like. Each person had an angel assigned to check in on them or whatever. He didn't come around all that often, or at least she didn't think so, but the passage of time was hard to grasp up there. To her surprise, Gabriel appears within moments.

"Alison. What the hell happened? How are you here? Alive?" Gabriel asks, looking her up and down, making sure she was okay.

"Apparently some chick named Amara brought me back to life. It's been an interesting day," she responds, taking comfort in a familiar face. It wasn't that Sam and Dean were strangers, they were just new faces, they were different than the last time she'd seen them. Gabriel wasn't.

"Are you okay? Do you want to be here? Or do you want to go back?"

"Back to Heaven? Can you do that?" she asks, wondering what was happening to her Heaven at the moment. _What happens when you come back to life? Does Heaven wait for you to just die again? Or does it disappear?_

"I could if that's what you want. Is it?" the angel asks, studying her carefully. He wasn't one to care for humans much, or anyone really at all, but Alison was different. When shit had hit the fan with the apocalypse, when he'd seen the angels pull Adam out of his heaven for Michael's use, he thought it was only a matter of time before they'd go after the other deceased Winchester sibling. He'd become somewhat fond of Sam and Dean and didn't want to see another innocent soul dragged into the mess, so he found Alison in Heaven and protected her, cloaked her heaven so no one could find her. He ended up becoming friends with her.

"I uh, I don't know right now. My brothers… they're here. I could actually have a life. But it's weird. It doesn't feel quite right. I don't feel like I belong here, and maybe I don't. Maybe I will want you to take me back. But right now I think I want to give life another shot," she explains. The feeling she had was odd, she didn't entirely know how to express it with words. She just felt… off.

Gabriel nods. "I understand. You call if you need me, okay? If you want to go back, if you just want someone to talk to, anything, got it?"

"Got it. Thanks, Gabe," Alison responds.

"Oh, and uh, your brothers and good old Castiel out there? They think I'm dead. It's a long story, I'll explain sometime, but right now it's probably best you don't mention me."

Confused, but too tired to question it, Alison nods.

"Good. I'll see you soon," Gabriel says before disappearing.

Her head was officially spinning. She felt like she could just pass out. She quickly makes the bed and changes into Sam's T-Shirt before crawling into bed. Despite the hundreds of questions whirling around in her brain, she's out in a matter of minutes.

* * *

"So," Dean says, sitting down across from his brother at the kitchen table, a beer in hand.

"So," Sam responds.

"Alison is back. All of a sudden, after eight years, she's just here." Dean states.

"I know. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. It's just so… surreal. I feel like at some point I'm going to wake up and find that this was all a dream. Find that she's still dead," Sam replies. He still couldn't believe it. His twin sister was suddenly alive again. People didn't just come back to life like that.

"Right? I almost didn't want to take my eyes off of her, fearing that I would and then she'd be gone again."

"What if she is? What if she doesn't want to be here? What if…. what if she tries to go back?" Sam asks, not liking where his mind was taking him.

"Y-you don't mean- she couldn't. She wouldn't try to- try to d-die again, would she?" Dean says, now becoming somewhat worried.

"I don't know, Dean. We don't know her anymore, not in the same way. We don't know what Heaven was like for her. It's supposed to be a place where you're completely at peace. We'd be stupid to think that at least some part of her wouldn't want to go back to that."

"You have a point. I'm uh, I'm going to go check on her. See if she fell asleep or not," Dean responds, setting his beer down before standing up.

Sam nods. He understood. The thought of her being gone again was almost unbearable. Over the years, they'd adjusted to not having her around. Her absence was always felt, it always hurt, but it became a part of their lives, the same way the loss of their mother and father did. Now she was back. If they were to lose her again, it would hurt so much more.

Dean returns a few minutes later and Sam shoots him a questioning look.

"She's asleep," Dean responds, retaking his seat.

"That's good," Sam replies. At least she was able to sleep.

Dean nods. The next few days were going to be interesting. Trying to adjust to having Alison back, trying to get her adjusted to being back, and trying to figure out where they all fit in with each other now.

* * *

_3:48. Great, _Alison thinks to herself. Assuming the clock was correct, she'd only managed to get about five hours of sleep. Knowing there was no point in trying to go back to bed, she gets up and heads to take a shower.

She couldn't stand the sight of her clothes any longer, it was like a constant reminder. She died in them once, it felt like it would just happen all over again. She puts Sam's shirt back on, tying it at the waist. With no other options, she slips the same pants back on and finishes towel drying her hair, using her fingers as a brush to the best of her ability. Knowing her brothers, there likely wasn't a single hair dryer or hairbrush in the entire bunker.

By the time Alison walks back into the bedroom, it was 4:40. _Still early as hell_, she thinks to herself. She wasn't sure what time her brothers normally got up anymore, but she figured it wouldn't be for at least another hour. With not much else to do, she decides to wander around the bunker, eventually stumbling upon the kitchen. _Maybe I'll make pancakes…_

Provided that her brothers at least kept common ingredients around, she'd be able to whip up a basic pancake. She pulls her hair up into a messy bun before searching for ingredients. Pancakes were something she'd memorized a recipe for long ago. They were easy.

First, she finds the sugar and flour. Then she grabs the milk, butter, and eggs in the fridge. White vinegar, baking soda, and baking powder was where she felt she may get hung up. Unless Sam or Dean had developed a passion for baking in the last eight years, it was possible there wouldn't be any around. Hoping that at least Dean had kept up with making pancakes from scratch, she searches through the spice cabinet, thankfully finding baking soda, baking powder, and salt. She also finds white vinegar under the sink. _Perfect_, she thinks to herself.

In her raid of the kitchen Alison had also stumbled upon chocolate chips and blueberries, so she thought she'd add some variety to her pancakes. Dean typically liked plain old pancakes loaded with syrup, she preferred chocolate chip ones, and Sam always wanted the fruit ones. She'd also found bacon in the fridge, completely unsurprising, so she decides to make some of that as well.

Just as she was flipping the last of the pancakes, Sam walks in.

"You're up early," Sam states as he glances at the clock, "It's barely 5:30. And you've already made breakfast."

"Well good morning to you too," Alison responds, feeling like she was being analyzed. She anticipated the next question before he even asked it.

"Did you even sleep?" he asks as he walks over towards the coffee pot and pours himself a cup.

"Woke up a little before four. Took a shower and then ended up here."

Sam nods, biting his tongue. She couldn't have gotten more than five hours of sleep. He was concerned, concerned that she wasn't doing okay, that she wouldn't want to stay with them or alive at all, but he felt it wasn't his place to say something. Not yet.

Alison watches him, seeing a dozen questions whirling around in his head. "Do you want breakfast or do you want to ask more questions?" she adds, growing a little irritated. Sure, this whole situation was fucked up, but she was still his twin.

"Breakfast," Sam responds, grabbing a plate from the counter. He'd forgotten how much he'd missed Alison's pancakes until he smelled them. "You made blueberry?"

Alison nods. "Chocolate chip and plain too. But the chocolate chip ones are mine, so paws off," she says, cracking a small smile.

Sam chuckles and puts a few blueberry pancakes on his plate as well as two pieces of bacon. He grabs a yogurt from the fridge and heads over to the table.

"Do I smell bacon?" Dean asks, appearing in the doorway, "And pancakes?"

"I made breakfast," Alison replies as she joins Sam at the table.

"Awesome," Dean states, a big smile on his face. It had been a while since someone had actually made breakfast in the bunker.

They all eat in relative silence, polishing off their plates rather quickly.

"So, how'd you sleep?" Dean asks before stuffing the last of his bacon into his mouth.

"Okay for the most part. Just didn't sleep very long," she responds.

"What time did you wake up?"

"Around four. Guess after eight years of rest, I didn't need a whole lot more," she jokes, attempting to lighten the mood. They were both being very serious and it was starting to bug her. She felt out of place. Given their faces in response, the joke didn't go well.

"Not funny, Al," Dean responds.

"I was gone, dead, for eight years. You two are just tiptoeing around me. Not saying what you want to say, asking what you want to ask. You're analyzing me like I'm some sort of science experiment and not your sister," Alison states.

"What are we supposed to say?" Dean questions.

"I don't know. Something, anything."

"You were gone, Al, for eight entire years. Suddenly you're here. I don't know what to say, I don't want to freak you out or make you realize you don't want to be here, make you realize…" Sam begins, trailing off.

"Make me realize what?" she asks, wanting to hear where Sam was going.

"Make you realize you don't want to be alive at all. That's what I'm afraid of. That after eight years in Heaven, you'll want that back and not us," Sam answers, trying to keep his voice steady.

"I do," Alison replies quietly.

"What?" Dean asks, sure he had to have misheard her.

"I do want to go back. At least part of me does. But I chose to end my life once, and I caused you both so much pain. I'm not going to do that again."

"What's that supposed to mean? You chose to end your life once?" Sam asks, noticing the shift in her expression. He'd always believed she died in an accident, never had a reason to believe it was anything but.

"It was an accident, it was, when my car went off that bridge, but I… I could've tried to get out. I just… didn't really see the point. I was sinking, losing air fast, and drowning seemed better than fighting at the time. Didn't see anything to fight for. My parents were dead, my big brother was in Hell, and my other brother, my own twin, had taken off. I was completely alone," Alison explains, struggling to keep tears at bay. She could see the pain in both of their eyes and she hated that she was the reason it was there.

No one says anything for a moment. It was completely silent.

"Al…" Dean trails off, not sure what to say or how to respond to what she'd just told them.

Without a word, Sam stands up and walks towards the hallway. He couldn't process what he'd just heard. Alison dying in a car accident was one thing, but her giving up was another, one he wasn't sure he could handle.

"Sam," Alison calls out, chasing after him, "Stop."

Sam pauses, his back to his twin.

She moves to stand in front of him. He was close to tears.

"This… this is all my fault," Sam says, his voice breaking.

"Stop. Look at me," she commands, locking eyes with her twin. "This is not your fault. Dean died, he got dragged to Hell right in front of our eyes. We were both hurting, so much. You went on a mission to get him back, that is how you chose to deal with it. Denial and anger. I… I didn't. And so I got left behind. I pulled away, Sam. Me. Not you. I wouldn't go with you and it was killing you, being at Bobby's, not doing anything to try and help Dean. I pushed you away. I can't blame you for leaving, and you shouldn't either."

"But… If I had just stayed-" Sam begins, only to be cut off by his twin.

"No. No buts. If you had stayed, I probably would've left. We fell apart, Sam. We completely fell apart without Dean. I would've died, one way or another. It was the path I was headed down."

"Both of you, back in here, _**now**_," Dean commands from the kitchen, having heard their entire conversation.

The twins walk back in, retaking their seats at the kitchen table.

"You're going to tell me exactly what happened after I died," Dean states, searching both of his siblings' faces. Clearly, there was a lot no one had ever told him.

"You were gone, Dean. You were in Hell. And there wasn't a damn thing we could do about it. We went to Bobby's, but we couldn't figure out where to go from there. Sam wanted to do something, anything, to get you back. I… I just sort of pulled away, I gave up. I gave up on life long before I actually died. I pushed Sam away and eventually, he left. I left Bobby's shortly after that, went completely off the grid. I probably spent more time drunk than I did sober. If I hadn't gone off that bridge, I would've gotten myself killed some other way," Alison explains.

Sam swallows hard, trying to compose himself enough to speak. He was remembering everything like it was yesterday. "Yeah, uh, we were a mess. I was angry, I was really, really angry, and I wanted to find a way to get you back. Any way. I didn't care what it was. And Alison didn't. She pushed me away, and I was so angry that I let her. I watched her disappear and was too damn pissed at the world to do anything about it. We both… we both fell apart in different ways, we took different paths that ultimately were heading towards the same endpoint. If you hadn't come back when you did, Dean, I probably would've ended up dead too."

"And no one ever told me this why?" Dean asks, feeling like he'd taken a blow to the gut. He'd never really gotten much detail about what happened after he died, how Alison died, why she was alone. It was an accident. That's all he was ever told.

"I couldn't. I couldn't talk about it…. I couldn't talk about her. I blamed myself. I still do. She was gone and it was my fault because I left her alone," Sam responds.

"What happened, happened. There's no changing it. I died. Placing blame doesn't change the fact that I was gone. For eight years. And now I'm here. God, there's no reason to talk about the past any further. We're all here again now. Can we just leave it at that?" Alison says, not liking the tension in the room.

Before either brother could say something, another voice cuts in, "I would like to talk about it."

Alison turns her head towards the doorway to find Castiel standing there.

"You weren't in Heaven, Alison, at least not from what I or any other angel could tell," Castiel continues, walking over towards the table.

"What?" Dean asks. _Why wouldn't she have been in Heaven? And why would she say she was if she wasn't?_

"We searched for you. After the seals broke, we looked for you as well, to bring you back," the angel explains.

"You mean to use me? The way you used my brothers? Then I'm glad you couldn't find me," Alison replies, bitterness in her voice.

"She was in Heaven," another voice says, appearing just behind Alison.

She didn't have to turn around to know it was Gabriel. Based on the facial expressions of her brothers and Castiel, they were very surprised to see him.

"Gabriel," Castiel says, confused about the situation.

"What did you do with our sister?" Dean asks, anger in his voice.

"Whoa, I didn't do anything wrong, okay? No need to go all macho man on me. I protected her. I hid her Heaven, to keep her from being used the same way they used your brother, Adam," Gabriel explains.

"Is that true? Would they have tricked her the way they did Adam? Used her for whatever they wanted?" Sam asks, looking directly at Castiel.

"Some angels wanted that, yes. They argued that because she was your twin, Sam, she also was a perfect vessel for Lucifer. She too had demon blood in her. They knew Lucifer would go after her eventually and wanted to be ahead of him. And with Alison and Adam as vessels, your cooperation would have no longer been necessary," Castiel responds. He never agreed with the plan, but back then that didn't matter. His opinion didn't much matter. To most angels, it still didn't.

"And a half-Winchester verse a full one? Lucifer would've won and it would've been over before it even started. So yes, I hid her, kept her safe," Gabriel responds.

"I thought you were dead," Castiel states.

"So did we," Sam adds in.

"You didn't really think I'd let Lucifer kill me, did you?" Gabriel asks, "I've just kept a low profile."

"I didn't know all this. Gabriel visited me every so often, it was nice. He is nice. It sounds like you should be thanking him, not glaring at him," Alison interjects. She didn't know what history her brothers had with Gabriel, but from what she could tell, it wasn't all candy canes and lollipops.

"I can agree with that. You kept her out of the apocalypse, you kept her safe, and for that, I do thank you," Sam says genuinely.

Dean follows suit and says, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but yes, thank you."

"See? That wasn't so hard," Alison states. Clearly, there was a lot of history between Gabriel and her brothers that she didn't know about.

"Al, he may have been nice to you, but he's pretty much been nothing but a dick to us," Dean explains.

"Hey! I helped you guys with the apocalypse," Gabriel protests.

"And you stuck me in an endless loop of the same day, all ending with Dean dying," Sam recalls.

"And you stuck us in some weird TV trap," Dean adds in.

"Not to mention you killed people while posing as a trickster," Sam says.

Alison didn't know what to make of everything they were saying. It sounded like they were talking about a different person.

"Okay, okay, I'm not welcome here, I get it," Gabriel interjects. He turns to Alison before he leaves and says, "You know how to find me if you need me."

She nods as she watches him vanish before her eyes. Deciding to shift the topic, she says, "Well then. Castiel, I don't suppose angels eat pancakes?"

"I could eat a pancake," Castiel responds, noticing the plates on the counter. He wasn't sure how to feel about the situation. People were not supposed to come back to life. Ever. Let alone after a long period of time. As soon as reapers got wind of it, they would not be happy. One may even come for Alison. To try and return things to the way they're supposed to be. He knew next to nothing about her, but he knew she meant a lot to Sam and Dean. They would not let her go again without a fight.

"Paws off the plain ones. Those are mine," Dean orders as he goes to fix himself a second plate.

Alison chuckles, some things never changed. Dean and his love of food was one of those things.


End file.
